Thank you, Madam Speaker, and honourable Members. Madam Speaker, I urge this government to remember that by formalizing the process for custom adoption, they are in some cases interfering with the process that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. The government has a responsibility to the people of the Northwest Territories. The people of the Northwest Territories prefer to deal with the issues of custom adoption at the local and family level. The legislation should not be so all-encompassing that it interferes with the process at the local level.

Madam Speaker, legislating traditional values and customs may be seen as legitimizing them. What I am saying is why do we have to do this? These practices are already legitimate. Madam Speaker, we have started down a road where we, as a government, are becoming too involved in deciding what we feel is good for aboriginal people, instead of the aboriginal people being responsible for what is ultimately their own tradition and customs. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause